Good Shepherd

Good Shepherd The last time I went to a town outside Cullinan, in Gauteng province, called Refilwe, we celebrated their inauguration of their church building. While I was there, I had a vision of a new addition of classrooms. I drew the picture and sent it to the senior pastor Maseko. This time, we had an opportunity to train his leaders, as well as those from the region. A team from Uganda representing Christ Sanctuary International, founded by pastor Tucker Nsubuga, were added to the list of delegates. We saw a prophetic word being fulfilled too, that nations would come to this venue, be equipped and sent out. The Church Leaders Toolkit is having ripple effects in the move of God. We focussed on household church groups, youth ministry and children’s church. The Young Reformers Youth Ministry from Harvester reformational Church, Pretoria, taught us how to do the ‘Church Clap’ dance and it was quite a challenge for the church leaders to follow. After catching our breath, I had to start the training and explored the mould for the multiplication of household groups in a church. We have a full course called “Household Leaders training” available from Miracle Bible Training Centre. Leaders from different ethnic backgrounds explained what worked for them and we were able to assimilate the principles that accurately reflect the intentions of Jesus for His church at a home cell or household level. The balance of church work and ministry in a community can be found in apostle Paul’s explanation: Acts 20:20, “How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,” There needs to be a corporate assembly of the local church, where we can celebrate together and worship God in the great assembly: Psalms 22:25, “My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.” The intimacy of a home is a great learning platform for ministry and living out the word being taught on Sundays. We encourage our Harvester Household leaders to meditate on the messages we share as apostles and facilitate group discussions so that the revelation can be better absorbed and implemented in our walk of faith. A specific song we sang at End time Harvest Fellowship, Refilwe, was about the sheep finally having a good shepherd, and then they celebrate it with a swaying dance while you turn full circle. The beat is a shuffle with an Afro-reggae feel that gets everyone moving – I captured it on video. Sheep want to feel safe, need to be fed regularly and need some still waters from which to drink. our good Shepherd provides that for us. But Jesus sues people in our lives too, and I can recall moments in my life where I saw the good Shepherd in local pastors and household leaders who cared for me and showed the compassion of Christ when I needed it most. I am still on contact with them and continually remind them of their impact in my life. A youth pastor once took me under his wing in a very intimidating large church. he showed me how to relate to the other young people and shared his Gospel music with me. When I was sick, he came to pray for me. We played tennis and I would support him when he played rugby. A brother when I needed it. We have reconnected supernaturally, and God has blessed him and his family. I have thanked him for his role in my life and encouraged his sons in turn, telling them about their dad who was a good shepherd to me. Janelle Swanepoel shared some good tips for shepherding the youth in a church. She is a second-generation minister of the Gospel and has an anointing to engage with the youth on their level. She makes an effort to understand and take a sincere interest in them and gave us her strategy. her team of leaders had a great sense of unity and yet retained their individuality. While she uses games and ice breakers to get her youth meetings going, she is strong in the word. But she uses wisdom to interpret the difficult scriptures in ways her generation can understand. There was an emphasis on listening and getting feedback form the youth. this can be facilitated better when there are smaller groups. Many of the young people said they felt like the youth was a safe environment where they could escape form the pressures of life and school and yes, parents! Those same small groups naturally develop young leaders who in turn will become good shepherds too! We are including Janelle’s notes in our next edition of the Church Leaders Toolkit, and we encouraged youth groups in the move to invite them to visit their youth groups. We envision a youth conference in the near future where the entire event will cater for the youth. They will be taking the body of Christ into the future, so let’s give them all the support they require. A prophet, Jackie Wessels, prayed with me in the front of the church on the Saturday, he gave me a word of encouragement. The next day while I was preaching, I saw some pictures of healings God wanted to accomplish, as God showed me, I stretched out my hand to the congregation and declared healing for various things in Jesus’ name. One of the things God showed was a neck injury and that the person should move their neck from side to side. At lunch, we were treated as honoured guests by a very gracious family who pour warm water over your hands before serving us their delicious meal. The lady of the house is a teacher of children, and her vision is to build a day care facility next to the church that could become a school. This is the connection to the vision of the buildings. then she thanked us for praying for her because God healed her neck that morning! She had been in a car accident the week before and whiplashed her neck. God is awesome. He is a good shepherd. He leads us in the right paths and heals us too. My wife, Chantal,

spoke about her curricula for different age groups of children that she has developed with her team over the years. Some of the church leaders came and thanked her for speaking about Children’s Ministry. Pam Ramanjalam, who leads the Sunday School team at HRC Pretoria, gave some practical examples how to manage the time during a service to keep the children occupied while still imparting spiritual truths in a fun environment. A few of the senior leaders attending testified how God saved them and called them in Sunday School. Jesus said to Peter once: “if you love me, feed my lambs.” There is the heart of the good Shepherd of our souls! insert Photos: Top: Prophet Chantal encourages the singers to sing a new song to the Lord! Niddle: The Young Reformers in the bus from Pretoria. below: We filmed the event and will share a link on the MBTC YouTube Channel soon. The producer's name is Success! he has done work on DSTV and we were blessed with his support.